The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
•
the need
for progress on reconciliation; and
•
the need
for economic progress and service delivery as a strategic
priority.481
832.
DFID’s
briefing for the visit stated that the UK’s approach was to help
build Iraq’s
capacity to
use its own resources effectively.482
DFID was
therefore proposing a “three
part
development ‘package’”, in addition to its water and power projects
in the South and
capacity-building
work in Baghdad. This comprised:
•
An
additional £5m in response to the humanitarian crisis in Iraq and
the region,
bringing
the total DFID contribution in 2007/08 to £15m.
•
Support for
a number of initiatives designed to promote public and
private
investment
in Basra including:
{{support
to establish the BIPA and the Basra Development Fund;
{{support
to develop Basra International Airport. The PRT, MND(SE)
and
Basra
Council had produced a US$40m plan to upgrade the airport
to
international
standards; the UK was working to secure that funding
from
central
Government; and
{{the
promotion of free trade between Basra and Kuwait.
Those
initiatives, together worth over £10m, would be implemented through
the
Basra
PRT.
•
Continuing
efforts to “leverage in” funding for Basra from central
Government.
The 2007
budget was expected to include over US$300m for investment
in
Basra.
833.
DFID was also
working with MND(SE), other major donors and central
Government
to
accelerate the renovation of Umm Qasr port. DFID had successfully
lobbied central
government
to approve over US$250m in soft loans from the Japanese Government
for
port
renovation.
834.
During his
meeting with Mr Brown, Prime Minister Maliki said that 2008
would
be the
“year of reconstruction”.483
It was good
that the UK was ready to play a greater
role on
reconstruction. Mr Brown said that Basra should receive
adequate resources
from
central Government, and identified the Basra Investment Forum as an
important
opportunity
to promote economic regeneration.
481
Minute
Cabinet Office [junior official] to Brown, 1 October 2007, ‘Iraq
Visit: 2 October 2007’.
482
Paper DFID,
September 2007, ‘UK Development Package for Iraq’.
483
Letter
Fletcher to Forber, 3 October 2007, ‘Prime Minister’s Visit to
Iraq, 2 October’.
330